Israelis perform Wagner at Bayreuth festival for first time

Jul 26, 2011, 12:19 GMT

Bayreuth, Germany - For the first time since World War II, an Israeli orchestra played music by Richard Wagner on Tuesday, at the annual Bayreuth festival dedicated to the composer.

Wagner, who was anti-Semitic and a favourite composer of Adolf Hitler, carries deep associations with Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. His music is rarely played in Israel.

The Israel Chamber Orchestra played the Siegfried Idyll, a 20-minute piece that Wagner composed for his second wife after the birth of their son, Siegfried, in 1869.

The musicians said they wanted to send a signal 'of rapprochement, tolerance and an open, historically conscious cultural exchange' between Israel and Germany.

The orchestra, conducted by Roberto Paternostro, also performed pieces by Tzvi Avni, Gustav Mahler, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and Franz Liszt.

Paternostro worked with the late Berlin Philharmonic conductor Herbert von Karajan, and has been the musical director of Germany's Wuerttemberg Philharmonie and Kassel State Theatre, where he established his reputation as an interpreter of Wagner.

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